Funcom’s latest financial report this week was bolstered by Conan Exiles’ success and the reveal that The Secret World isn’t getting an expansion as rumored after all; it’s getting a complete relaunch this spring with a fresh newbie experience, combat overhaul, and adjusted business model. Funcom’s been tight-lipped on details so far, meaning speculation (even from our own TSW columnist) is running wild.
There’s some sad news out of Funcom this week too: Anarchy Online and Age of Conan are basically headed for maintenance mode. “No further significant work is expected to be done on this project going forward,” Funcom says of both games.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Funcom is ‘relaunching’ The Secret World in 2017, but it’s maintenance mode for Anarchy Online and Age of Conan - Funcom's fourth quarter 2016 financial report for investors landed this afternoon, and it's a doozy, especially for MMORPG players. Of most interest is the news that the studio is planning…
Chaos Theory: Speculating on The Secret World’s relaunch - Well, it wasn't the news I was hoping for, but I'll still take it! This week we learned about Funcom's plan to relaunch the conspiracy-laden Secret World in late March.…
Hands-on: Digging deep into Crowfall’s pre-alpha crafting systems - Last weekend, Crowfall developer ArtCraft Entertainment held the last of its February playtest weekends, inviting the game’s Early Access backers to jump into the gameworld to play, test, and provide feedback…
LOTRO Legendarium: A guide to starting fresh in Lord of the Rings Online - [AL:LOTRO]This past week, I received this letter from reader Thurro: "Your recent LOTRO resurgence has my interest, and from the sounds of you on the podcast I might not be…
Black Desert celebrates first anniversary with Dark Knight launch, birthday gifts - [AL:BDO]The Dark Knight is officially live in Black Desert today as part of the game's first anniversary update. Hardcore players probably already took advantage of the pre-creation event, but if…
Oculus drops the price of its VR headset to $499 - Do you know people who would love to hook themselves up with VR headsets but balk a bit at the price? Oculus is making it a little cheaper to get…
Hyperspace Beacon: Why I’m taking a break from Star Wars: The Old Republic - [AL:TOR]I've been considering writing this for awhile now, but I've not been sure how to broach the subject. I've not been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. That's not to…
Black Desert is due for a ‘full-scale graphic remastering later this year’ - [AL:BDO]At GDC last week, Black Desert took center stage as the subject of a demo from Silicon Studio showing off YEBIS, its post-processing software. "I thought that Black Desert Online’s…
Camelot Unchained sees ‘a light at the end of the tunnel’ - There's no doubt that it has to be difficult for the Camelot Unchained team to continue to ask for patience week after week when all the players simply want to…
You can try Shroud of the Avatar for free right now - Sing me a song of a free trial, sing me a song today! Right this very hot moment, Shroud of the Avatar is testing out a free trial to see…
Path of Exile lets loose with Patch 2.6 tonight - [AL:POE]Just call it Patch of Exile. This evening, the highly anticipated Patch 2.6 will go live in Path of Exile, and the relatively calm landscape of the MMOARPG will erupt…
Free Realms Sunrise emulator vows to bring back some of the fun - Were you there when they turned the lights out on Free Realms? The title went dark on this family-friendly MMORPG back in March 2014, but some fans have held a…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Earthtear Cavern home will be buyable next week - [AL:ESO]Fans of The Elder Scrolls Online's Homestead housing will probably want to take a peek at the coming-soon announcement for the cash shop, which finally includes Earthtear Cavern, which was…
Massively Overthinking: Mainstream misconceptions about MMORPGs - Massively OP reader Arsin Halfmoon pitched the team a great question this week, poached straight from the podcast list: "As someone deeply invested in the MMO genre, I find our reputation…
Guild Wars 2 peeks behind-the-scenes at its ‘chess raid’ - [AL:GW2]How does chess factor into MMORPGs? When it comes to Guild Wars 2's newest raid, Bastion of the Penitent, the age-old tabletop game was apparently a great inspiration to the…
Choose My Adventure: The overwhelming opening of WildStar - Playing WildStar for this week's session was the first time I really felt old. I had failed to account for two things when I got started last week. The first…
MMO publisher Gamigo buys MMOGames.com - What happens when a global publisher of MMORPGs acquires an MMO news site? We're about to find out, as the Gamigo Group announced that it has purchased MMOGames.com to "enlarge…
Perfect Ten: Every MMORPG bestiary ever - I have played a lot of MMOs. It's inevitable, given enough years in this job and hobby. And the sad thing is that I wind up seeing the same things…
Trove counts almost 10M players ahead of March 14 console launch - [AL:Trove]Voxel sandbox Trove's been in open beta on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for only a few short months, but it's already gathered "nearly four million" players across both consoles,…
Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon Wildlands launches next week - If you're a fan of The Division and Ubisoft, you've probably already got your eye on Ghost Recon Wildlands, yet another entry in the ubiquitous Tom Clancy franchise. It's been…
Elder Scrolls Online tours Morrowind’s capitals, addresses Cyrodiil performance - [AL:ESO]Were you wondering why Imperial-themed starter town Seyda Neen looks like Seyda Neen 700 years earlier in The Elder Scrolls Online's Morrowind expansion, before Imperial occupation? Turns out it's a…
Ashes of Creation demos combat gameplay and UI in new alpha video - Ashes of Creation sprung a brand-new alpha video on MMORPG players via PC Gamer this morning. It's not, as suggested there, the team's first gameplay video; Intrepid Studios has been…
SWTOR is adding another 100 galactic command levels to grind - [AL:TOR]Remember all the hoopla and hate around Star Wars: The Old Republic's galactic command experience system last fall? Remember how almost no one actually liked it because of the intense grind,…
Revelation Online welcomes early access players to the soft launch - [AL:Rev]It's happening, people. It's happening. After months of anticipation for the next big Asian import, Revelation Online is finally (soft) launching. Open beta starts today for early access players. The…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 106: Ready to relaunch
Battle Bards Episode 93: It’s a madhouse!
The Stream Team: Happy sixth anniversary RIFT!
The Stream Team: Doing DDO’s 11th anniversary dev dungeon
The Stream Team: Wakfu’s fifth anniversary
The Stream Team: Be Black Bolt with a free Marvel Heroes code
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Could a Cataclysm-style expansion work?
Would you accept a complete departure in WoW?
Is it already time for WoW to ditch Artifact Power?
Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all the little bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
